PUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 18-1330 FELIPE PEREZ PEREZ, Plaintiff – Appellant, v. LEE FRANCIS CISSNA, Director, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, Defendant – Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, at Charlotte. Robert J. Conrad, Jr., District Judge. (3:16-cv-00748-RJC-DSC) Argued: October 30, 2018 Decided: January 29, 2019 Before WILKINSON, KING, and QUATTLEBAUM, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Quattlebaum wrote the majority opinion, in which Judge Wilkinson joined. Judge King wrote a dissenting opinion. ARGUED: Bradley Bruce Banias, BARNWELL WHALEY PATTERSON AND HELMS, Charleston, South Carolina, for Appellant. Sheetul S. Wall, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Chad A. Readler, Acting Assistant Attorney General, William C. Peachey, Director, Brian Ward, Senior Litigation Counsel, District Court Section, Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Appellee. QUATTLEBAUM, Circuit Judge: This case involves the application of 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(27)(J), a means for immigrant children to become lawful permanent residents of the United States if they meet the statutory special immigrant juvenile (“SIJ”) requirements. One of the requirements is a qualifying state court custody order. Today, we address the narrow question of whether the temporary, ex parte emergency order presented by Felipe Perez Perez qualifies as a predicate state court custody order for the SIJ application. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (the “Agency”), the Administrative Appeals Office (“AAO”) and the district court concluded it did not. For the reasons set out below, we affirm. I. A. Before examining the facts of this case, we briefly summarize the SIJ statute. Under 101(a)(27)(J) (8 U.S.C. § 1101 (a)(27)(J)) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, an SIJ is “an immigrant who is present in the United States”: (i) who has been declared dependent on a juvenile court located in the United States or whom such a court has legally committed to, or placed under the custody of, an agency or department of a State, or an individual or entity appointed by a State or juvenile court located in the United States, and whose reunification with 1 or both of the immigrant’s parents is not viable due to abuse, neglect, abandonment, or a similar basis found under State law; (ii) for whom it has been determined in administrative or judicial proceedings that it would not be in the alien’s best interest to be returned to the alien’s or parent’s previous country of nationality or country of last habitual residence; and 2 (iii) in whose case the Secretary of Homeland Security consents to the grant of special immigrant juvenile status[.] 1 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(27)(J). To become an SIJ, an immigrant child must apply for that status with the Agency. He or she bears the burden of proving the SIJ requirements. Id. § 1361. If an applicant obtains SIJ status, he or she is potentially eligible for lawful permanent resident status. If an SIJ is granted lawful ...
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